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You Might Be A Gardening Geek: Ice Storm Edition

You decide to venture out in the afternoon to get the mail and go out to the garage to select a hoe to use as a walking stick. However, once you look over all the hoes you decide instead to take a long handled dandelion digger with you because you never used it for digging dandelions and it turns out to be just the right length to be a good walking stick, plus the forked end is perfect for stabbing into the ice as you walk.

You decide to risk going outside to get the mail because you watched as the mail lady repeatedly beat the mailbox with a wooden stick to knock off the ice so she could open it and then you saw her put a book package in it, and even though you already have hundreds of gardening books, you knew there was another one waiting for you in the mailbox and you just had to go retrieve it.

Your mail that you ventured out into the ice storm to get also included a thank you note and two packets of lettuce seeds from the local seed company, Nature's Crossroads and your 10% discount card from State by State Gardening which was part of the deal when you subscribed to Indiana Gardening and will be good at several local garden centers. Bonus points if you stopped by the State by State Gardening booth at the Indianapolis Home Show over the past weekend and met Kevin, the marketing manager who is from Louisiana, and possibly scared him a teensy bit when you mentioned that even the locals were nervous about the ice storm predication.

The first thing you notice when you look outside in the early light of morning is a newly planted oak tree bent over by the ice...

but you don't panic because you are pretty sure it will straighten up when the ice melts.

You read about some of your southern gardening friends like Gail at Clay and Limestone already finding blooms on their fragrant witch hazels, Hamamelis vernalis, and decide to check yours, too,

but see no evidence of blooms, even when you blow up the picture on your computer to examine every ice encased branch.

You remind yourself that it is because of the cold weather that you can enjoy lilacs, which some of your Texas gardening friends, like Annie in Austin, really miss.

You wonder if the garden fairies have found shelter from the ice and wind, or if they are hanging out with the tree fairies amongst the house plants in the sun room.

You notice that the grass...

does not need to be cut yet, but note that you will probably need to mow in approximately 60 days or so, maybe more, and remember that last fall one of your mowers wouldn't start so as soon as the weather clears up and the roads are nice and dry, you will have to take that mower in for repair. Bonus points if you looked in your gardening journal to find out when it is that you usually start mowing the lawn in the spring.

Finally, you might be a gardening geek in an ice storm if you are sitting in your own little corner near a nice fire in the fireplace, surrounded by seed catalogs and gardening books, and listening to the sound of ice hitting the skylight while you are dreaming of the days of May...

This was one of your funniest ones my dear. Stay warm and safe. I hope you baked something today since it's cold outside. I haven't ventured to the mailbox. I know the mail carrier didn't make it out into the country with all these snow drifts.~~Dee

OMG, I am such a HUGE garden geek. Thanks for pointing this out. I can't stop going outside with a camera. We've already gotten 69 inches of snow this year...more comming tomorrow. Pretty soon I will be able to see the tops of my ornamental trees by just walking up to them on the snow drifts. I am actually a bit stressed that we will have to wait until mid May to see the grass!

Oh do stay warm, safe and dry, dear Carol, and enjoy your gardening goodies by the fire. That weeder was the perfect thing to help you get to the mailbox. I feel sorry for your mail lady having to beat up on the boxes to deliver the mail. That must have taken her a very long time to go through her route. Love the old journals to find dates when things were first done, too. May your oak right itself and the witch hazel have blooms. :-)Frances

You can SEE your lawn? I haven't seen mine in at least a month. Last night blessed us with an additional layer of 10" of snow. The winds reminded me that I did not take down my chimes. They let me know how nasty it was last night.

Some garden geeks are visiting a son in Cambridge and wondering why the Harvard Museum of Natural History had to close and keep her from visiting the famous glass flowers when there is a perfectly good underground T system to take her there in spite of ice and snow.

Carol, I hope you are safe and sound--and have power! I made it safely out of Indy on Monday, just ahead of the storm, and now am watching the news of this terrible blizzard while enjoying sunny days in the 50's here in Oregon. I hope your little oak tree and everything else in your garden bounces back from the ice.

Woe! And we have the neck to whinge about our weather here in England. I hope that poor little oak doesn't rupture its bark. We do have problems with sudden sharp frost here, sometimes, which freezes sap and splits the bark. Young trees can be vulnerable. Hope your spring comes soon.Nigel